kamiel [at] creativechoice.org

Poor family in Misa Village, Cairo

The Misa Village is within sight of the Pyramids, yet poverty is ubiquitous here.

We decide to support one family on the eve of an important religious celebration and by shoes for the children.

Name

family in Misa village near Giza

Aim

To allow a destitute muslim family to celebrate their festival in dignity

Since

2005

Staff

individual

People reached

grandmother living with her daughter and four grandchildren

Contact

take a bus to the Misa village before or after visiting the pyramids

Donation

600 EP (USD)

A visitor from Alexandria who wears sunglasses and tells me today is a good day for charitable giving since the heaven is open (it is the eve of the Islamic sacrifice festival) takes me from the Pyramids of Giza to the village of Misa. He knows his way through the muddy narrow streets to the very modest dwelling of a family of only women. I follow him to this family and have a look around. The grandmother, head of the family, is sitting outside, her back leaning against the rough wall of the alleyway. She is wrapped in a black cloth, yet her wrinkled old face with the dark eyes is visible. Inside, I see her daughter who is living with her after the death of her husband, and her children running around barefoot.

So much wisdom…

I decide to support this family, and ask what they could use. Shoes, they answer in unison, shoes for the children would be nice, and meat for the festival. Okay. In spite of my habit not to just give alms I agree and supply them what they need to celebrate in dignity.

We walk to the shop and buy six pairs of kid’s shoes, documenting the purchase with my camera. The shop owner is a smiling big man who writes an impromptu receipt for the shoes on a page of my notebook. We head back and I discreetly hand over the rest of the money to the grandmother. I take some more photographs to give an impression of their living condition: a small, barely furnished dark room with an old stove in the back, a modest bedroom with some carpets on the floorGrandmother, whose husband passed away a few years ago, dragged herself inside and started to prepare tea. She can’t stand up because of a “knee problem”. I take it she has arthritis and tell them that my donation is either for her medical treatment or for the preparations of the festival. That is their idea too.

They invite me to celebrate the festival with them and that touches me. I have to move on though, there is a lot more to do for Charity Travel.